Locke eyes improving two-way trade with China
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The United States is looking forward to improving two-way trade with China, which is a very important market for U.S. services and products, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said Saturday.
Locke made the remarks on a trip to the northern port city of Tianjin ahead of the Second China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue early next week.
He is leading executives of 24 clean energy companies including General Electric Co., First Solar Inc., and Boeing Co. in the Obama administration's first cabinet-level trade mission.
The trade mission came as he seeks to deliver on U.S. President Barack Obama's pledge to double exports and create 2 million jobs by 2015.
The U.S. would work to ensure a level playing field when the U.S. companies came to do business in China and ultimately expand two-way trade, he told a press briefing.
The trade mission aimed to promote sales of U.S. clean technology services and products to cash in on the huge business opportunities in China.
"All the companies are looking to expand their presence in China and many of them already had facilities," he told reporters. "The opportunities are stunning in China."
Locke said Sunday in Hong Kong that "concrete proposals" on the export control regime could be expected within the next several months.
"Various reports and studies have indicated that some restrictions of export control have inhibited U.S. companies' sales of emerging technologies," he said. "We believe that some of these restrictions we have on the U.S. companies make absolutely no sense."
Locke has also made stops in Shanghai and Beijing. He will join U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other cabinet officials for the Second China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in Beijing.
The dialogue will include issues of mutual concern including international and regional security, energy, trade and health care, he said.
